Megliola: End of an era for Marlborough Legion

Lenny Megliola/Special to the News

Saturday

Mar 30, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2013 at 10:23 AM

Last summer, an excruciating Marlborough American Legion baseball season ended with a scheduled game against Milford that never got played. "We had to forfeit," says Marlborough’s general manager Art Bennett. Marlborough finished the season 1-24. It signaled the end of the program, too.

Last summer, an excruciating Marlborough American Legion baseball season ended with a scheduled game against Milford that never got played. "We had to forfeit," says Marlborough’s general manager Art Bennett. "We only had eight players."

Marlborough finished the season 1-24. It signaled the end of the program too. "I told (manager) Lonnie Quirion ‘We can’t do this anymore. We can’t compete,’ " says Bennett. Quirion agreed.

The season before Marlborough ended up 4-20.

Bennett, 76, was a main force that got the team, Post 132, up and running in 1980 and was the team’s GM the entire time.

"It was a lot of fun for a lot of years," he says. "We used to be able to take kids from Hudson, Hudson Catholic and Nashoba, and we were lucky to have some very good Marlborough High players." Hudson eventually got its own team. Hudson Catholic closed several years ago.

"When Hudson got a team about eight, nine years ago, it hurt our program," says Bennett. "Luckily, we had some good players from Marlborough. We could put out a competitive team." But the end was in sight.

"Eventually it started to die out," says Bennett.

It became more difficult in recent years scraping a team of just Marlborough players. "The kids don’t have the commitment anymore," says Bennett. "They go on vacation and take weekends off. Last year we were using charter school kids and JV players. " The losses piled up, 44 against five wins during the final two years.

"It was a battle," says Bennett. "It was time to end it. We couldn’t compete anymore."

Bennett hated to break the news to the Post 132 board. "They were always supporting us financially. I never had to beg for money."

The late Ted Rolfe, a Northborough legend, was the first Post 132 coach, 1980-84. Ken Giardina, Bill Rigney, Brian Davis, Joe Apicella, Paul Duplessis and Bob Wood followed, with Bennett assisting on the field while still wearing the GM hat.

Although Marlborough and Hudson are archrivals at the high school level, their American Legion teams competed in different zones. Now, Hudson can take Marlborough players. "I’ve already heard from a couple of them," says Hudson manager Blair Brissette. "It opens up our recruiting area. But I feel bad for Art and those guys. They put a lot of time into it. But there are fewer and fewer kids interested in baseball now."

Brissette only had 18 players try out last season. He kept them all. The team went 8-12 and hasn’t finished over .500 in years. Brissette only took Hudson players for a while, then the Clinton Legion program closed down a couple of years ago. Hudson had one player from Clinton and two from Nashoba Regional last season.

"We put a lot of effort into the team, but it’s tough," admits Brissette. "The kids have a lot of options. We’re fighting AAU (programs) for players." Plus, more and more kids are playing one sport all year round.

Brissette says "We like to think we have a good program," adding that Hudson’s splendid Riverside Park is "a drawing point."

It didn’t help Marlborough that it competed in Zone 4 with perennially strong teams. But Bennett will miss the short road trips to towns like Framingham, Milford, Northbridge and Leominster. He plans on going to games anyway. It’s in his DNA.

Bennett is as Marlborough as they come. "When I was a kid we lived near Kelleher Field, which was a football and baseball field back then. We lived at that field." It was the ’50s, a different world.

His father, also Art, started Marlborough Little League. "My grandfather played for a professional team in Worcester. (Philadelphia Athletics owner/manager and Hall of Famer) Connie Mack offered him a contract. My grandmother said "No."

Bennett played baseball in high school, then went into the Navy for four years. When he got out he coached Little League and worked for ConGas.

Reflecting on the Legion years Bennett says, "I always enjoyed the kids more than anything."

Bennett is Marlborough High’s pitching coach - Duplessis is the head coach - and that will help the time pass. Well, until Legion season starts.

"I just grew up loving baseball," Bennett says.

Losing 24 of 25 last summer was the death knell for Post 132. "That’s when we decided it was time," says Bennett.

The man gave Marlborough everything he had.

Lenny Megliola can be reached at lennymegs@aol.com.

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